Lenny Kravitz was at his home studio in the Bahamas, putting the finishing touches on his album Black and White America (due August 30th), when Gary Ross called this spring. The director offered Kravitz a key role in his film version of The Hunger Games: Cinna, the stylist who becomes a crucial ally for teen heroine Katniss Everdeen in author Suzanne Collins' bestselling sci-fi novel and its two sequels. "Now, I hadn't read the book yet, so I didn't know what it was," Kravitz tells Rolling Stone. "I go out and get the book, read it – oh, wow."

Like millions of readers worldwide, Kravitz proceeded to tear through The Hunger Games. He's currently midway through Catching Fire, the second book in the trilogy. "I'm really excited to be playing Cinna," he says. "Reading the book, I'm seeing everything – the Capitol, the arena, all this stuff. This world is going to be incredible."

The Hunger Games – which is set to hit theaters next March – will be Kravitz' second feature film after a widely praised supporting role in 2009's Precious. While rock & roll remains his focus, he's looking forward to doing more acting. "I'm not just trying to push my [movie] career forward to push it forward," he says. "I want to do the right things. Precious was a great way to start, really low-key, and now this. We'll see where it goes from here."

Acting is a family tradition for Kravitz: his late mother, Roxie Roker, starred in The Jeffersons, and his daughter, Zoë Kravitz, is in multiplexes now in X-Men: First Class. "I just saw her in X-Men," adds the rocker. "That was a trip! I'm really proud of her. How cool is it to go to the movies and see your daughter flying around the screen?"